Are you excited for the weekend? Well, we are as you will get to hear some of the most exciting stars singing in the world’s leading opera houses. Check it out right here!

Austria

At the Vienna State Opera, audiences will get the chance to see Puccini’s “Turandot” with a star-studded cast including Elena Pankratova, Heinz Zednik, Ryan Speedo Green, Stefano La Colla and Anita Hartig. The company will also present Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with Adam Plachetka, Albina Shagimuratova, Saimir Pirgu, Olga Bezsmertna and Jongmin Park

At the Vlaanderen Opera audiences will be in for Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” with Nicola Alaimo and Myrtò Papatanasiu. The opera will be performed on both Friday and Sunday.

Denmark

The Royal Danish Opera will continue its run of Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” with Johan Reuter, Hanne Fischer and Susanne Resmark. The weekend will conclude with Kurt Weill’s “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” which will be showcase Resmark, Jens Christian Tvilum, Stephen Chaundy and Randi Stene.

France

Rolando Villazon and Magdalena Kozena continue their run of Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno d’Ulysse” after a huge opening night this past week at the Theatre des Champs-Elysse.

Germany

Joyce DiDonato will sing her final performance as Rossini’s “Semiramide” at the Bayerische Staatsoper. The performance is sold out but audiences will be able to catch it later this summer when she returns to the production for the Munich Summer festival. The company will also present Leoš Janáček’s “Jenufa” with Karita Mattila and Sally Matthews. Stuart Skelton and Pavol Breslick round out the cast.

At the Berlin Staatsoper, Strauss and Wagner will dominate. The weekend will open with “Ariadne Auf Naxos” with Anna Samuil, Roberto Saccà, Elena Sancho Pereg and Katharina Kammerloher and will conclude with “Tannhauser” starring Burkhard Fritz, Anne Schwanewilms, Wolfgang Koch, Marina Prudenskaya and René Pape.

Gounod’s “Faust” will return to the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Abdellah Lasri, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo and Heidi Stober. The company will also present Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte.”

Italy

Ailyn Pérez headlines two performances of Verdi’s “La Traviata” with Francesco Meli and Leo Nucci at the Teatro alla Scala. The opera is being conducted by legendary conductor Nello Santi.

Two casts will alternate Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. The casts include Simone Piazzola and Rodolfo Giugliani as Di Luna, Tatiana Serjan and Vittoria Yeo as Leonora and Ekaterina Semenchuk and Silvia Beltrami as Azucena.Stefano Secco and Diego Cavazzin alternate the title role.

Oman

At the Royal Opera Muscat audiences will have the chance to see superstar Anna Netrebko and her husband Yusif Eyvazov in concert. The two stars will perform a program with Verdi, Puccini and Giordano. There are few tickets left for the gala.

Russia

Legendary conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky headlines the Bolshoi Theatre’s production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tsar’s Bride.” The opera will be performed by an all-Russian cast.

At the Mariinsky Theatre audiences are in for a diverse amount of repertoire. Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Wagner’s “Lohengrin” and Saint-Saens “Samson et Dalila” will be performed during the weekend.

Switzerland

At the Opernhaus Zurich, audiences will see the revival of Verdi’s “Otello” with a stellar cast that includes Aleksandrs Antonenko, Maria Agresta, Zeljko Lucic, and Benjamin Bernheim, whom OperaWire interviewed a few months ago.

About the Author

FRANCISCO SALAZAR, (Publisher) worked as a reporter for Latin Post where he has had the privilege of interviewing numerous opera stars including Anita Rachvelshvili and Ailyn Perez. He also worked as an entertainment reporter where he covered the New York and Tribeca Film Festivals and interviewed many celebrities such as Antonio Banderas, Edgar Ramirez and Benedict Cumberbatch. He currently freelances for Remezcla.
He holds a Masters in Media Management from the New School and a Bachelor's in Film Production and Italian studies from Hofstra University.